An evening when the right and the left, the Red and the Blue, tackle (and possibly resolve!) the hottest and most contested issues on the forefront of the national agenda.

The Creative Coalition's Poker Detente for the first time ever brought together Capitol Hill's leadership and those who comment on it with Hollywood's brightest stars at a charity event - over the poker table.

Eric Alterman

Eric Alterman is distinguished professor of English at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York and professor of journalism at the Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, as well as the liberal columnist for The Nation and Altercation blogger for Media Matters for America(formerly at MSNBC.com) in Washington, DC, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC, where he writes and edits the "Think Again" column, a senior fellow (since 1985) at the World Policy Institute at The New School in New York, and a history consultant to HBO Films.
Alterman is the author of seven books, including the national bestsellers, What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News (2003, 2004), and The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America (with Mark Green, 2004).
The others include: When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and its Consequences, (2004, 2005). His Sound & Fury: The Making of the Punditocracy (1992, 2000), won the 1992 George Orwell Award and his It Ain't No Sin to be Glad You're Alive: The Promise of Bruce Springsteen (1999, 2001), won the 1999 Stephen Crane Literary Award, and Who Speaks for America? Why Democracy Matters in Foreign Policy, (1998).
His newest book is Why We're Liberals: A Political Handbook to Post-Bush America, (2008).

Phillip Bloch

Phillip Bloch, one of Hollywood's most sought-after stylists, is a former model and designer. Trained at the Fashion Institute of Technology, he has created "looks" for stars ranging from Jim Carrey and Jennifer Aniston to David Duchovny and Nicole Kidman. Phillip Bloch appears regularly on the E! Channel and Entertainment Tonight and has been featured in Cosmopolitan, InStyle, the New York Times, and Premiere.

Robin Bronk

The Creative Coalition (TCC) appointed Robin Bronk Executive Director on July 7, 1998. TCC is the leading nonprofit, nonpartisan social and political advocacy organization of the arts and entertainment industry. As Executive Director, Ms. Bronk is dedicated to educating and mobilizing the arts community on issues of public importance, particularly the First Amendment, arts advocacy and public education.

Margaret Carlson

Margaret Carlson is a Bloomberg View columnist. A former White House correspondent for Time, she was also Time's first female columnist. She appeared on CNN's "Capital Gang" for 15 years.

Timothy Daly

Timothy Daly is an American screen and voice actor and producer.
Daly was born in New York City, the son of actor James Daly and younger brother of actress Tyne Daly, who is ten years his senior. Daly began his professional career while a student at Vermont's Bennington College, where he studied theater and literature and acted in summer stock.

Giancarlo Esposito

Giancarlo Esposito is an American film and television actor.
Born in Denmark to an Italian father and an African-American mother, Esposito lived in Europe, New York, and Cleveland until the family settled in Manhattan when he was six. At the age of ten he made his Broadway debut in the short-lived Maggie Flynn. Additional New York theatre credits include The Me Nobody Knows, Lost in the Stars, Seesaw, and Merrily We Roll Along.

Frances Fisher

Frances Fisher is an English actress resident in the United States.
Before she reached the age of 15, Fisher moved nine times with her father who supervised construction in multiple countries. Upon completing high school in Orange, Texas, Fisher worked as a secretary until she moved to Virginia to perform at the Barter Theatre.
A short time later, she would move again to New York City where she first made a name for herself playing Deborah Saxon on the soap opera The Edge of Night from 1976 to 1981; Fisher later was in the cast of Guiding Light as Suzette Saxon. She then spent the next 10 years working on stage in New York and in regional theatres all over the East Coast. Fisher was cast as Lucille Ball in the television movie Lucy and Desi: Before the Laughter, which aired to strong ratings and good reviews in 1991.

John Fund

John Fund is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal and writes the "On The Trail" column for the paper’s OpinionJournal.com.
He is also a contributor to the 24-hour cable new channels CNBC and MSNBC. He joined the Journal in 1984 as deputy editorial features editor. In 1986, he became an editorial page writer specializing in politics and government, and was a member of the editorial board from 1995 to 2001.
A former staffer for the California State Legislature, Fund is author of several books, including Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy and Cleaning House: America's Campaign for Term Limits.

Wendie Malick

Wendie Malick is an American actress and former fashion model.
Malick was born in Buffalo, New York to an Egyptian father. She graduated from Williamsville South High School. In 1972, after graduating from Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, she began fashion modeling for the Wilhelmina modeling agency. She began working as an actress in 1982 in the film A Little Sex, and has worked steadily since that time. She was given a special award by the Screen Actor's Guild for her accomplishments in film and television; she has appeared in no less than five television programs or films every year for the past 23 years.

Lawrence O'Donnell

Lawrence O'Donnell is an MSNBC Senior Political Analyst and a panelist on "The McLaughlin Group."
O'Donnell is an Emmy-winning producer and writer of NBC's The West Wing. He also served as the creator and Executive Producer of NBC's drama Mister Sterling. The West Wing episode he co-wrote on the death penalty won the 2000 Humanitas Prize for writing that "communicate(s) those values which most enrich the human person."
During the election year 2000, O'Donnell was a contributing editor of New York magazine with a column on national politics.

Charles Joseph Scarborough

Former Florida Congressman Joe Scarborough hosts Scarborough Country, a nightly newscast on MSNBC. He also provides on air political commentary for the network, as well as CNBC and NBC's Today Show.
Scarborough was first elected to the US Congress in 1994, becoming the first Republican elected in Florida's First District since 1872. He was re-elected three more times, in landslide victories.

Kerry Washington

Kerry Washington is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Ray Charles' wife, Della Bea Robinson, in the film Ray (2004), and Alicia Masters in the 2005 live-action Fantastic Four film and its sequel, Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer (scheduled for 2007). She has also starred in the critically acclaimed independent film Our Song.

John Zogby

John Zogby is President and Chief Executive Officer of Zogby International, a leading public opinion and market research firm. Mr. Zogby routinely conducts polls on health care reform and global health efforts. Among his accomplishments, he is widely recognized for correctly predicting the cliffhanger result of the 2000 presidential election for George W. Bush, in contrast to most other pollsters who had projected that Bush would win easily.
Mr. Zogby established his firm in 1984 and since then has been tracking public opinion in North America, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Europe. He has written guest editorials for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among other major newspapers, and he is the author of a forthcoming portrait of the new American consumer, which will be published by Random House this fall. Mr. Zogby holds degrees in history from Le Moyne College and Syracuse University.

I am Robin Bronk, Executive Director of The Creative Coalition and behalf of TheCreative Coalition and our partners NBWA, we want to welcome you to the 21st CenturyLeaders Event, just very exciting to be here with all you leaders. I want to first introduceCraig Purser from our partner, the NBWA who is going to say a couple of words.Thanks Robin, my name is Craig Purser and I am the President of the National BeerWholesalers Association, NBWA, we represent America's beer distributors. So if you atruck on the street and it says Bud Light or it says Miller or it says Coors on side of it,nine times out of ten that truck isn't owned by a company from out of state or out oftown, its owned by a local business living and working in that community to get Americaa wide variety fresh tasting malt beverages. NBWA has very good history I think, ofworking with The Creative Coalition, this is probably our third year of working onprojects together because partly because we are big believers in the First Amendment. Ithink we share that interest in the First Amendment, the right to free speech for us thatincludes commercial free speech but likewise we should we have a real interest in the21st Amendment. And for those of you that don't know the 21st Amendment of course,it's the one that Repealed the 18th which was Prohibition. So, but in addition to repealingprohibition, the 21st amendment gives the states the rights to regulate alcohol and that'ssomething that we feel very strongly about as it relates to our businesses but is also as itrelates to controlling the product. So thank you all for being here, we are looking forwardto a fun filled day lunch today and I understand there is going to be a little bit of cardsplay this evening, but we appreciate the opportunity to partner with The CreativeCoalition and thank you very much.And well, NBWA believes our issues, The Creative Coalition certainly does believe inbeer, so it's a great partnership. I wanted now, also let remind every one about thePoker Detente with our partners, the World Poker Tour, the CEO of the World PokerTour is here, Steve Lipscomb, we actually brought some cards for you to probably toyou could start shuffling up and practicing sometime during after the have it after thepanel. But Steve said he can teach anything in 10 minutes and the grand prize tonight is a25 a seat valued at $25000 at the World Poker Tour Celebrity Invitational. But ofcourse if you are working on Capitol Hill we understand that it is of no value to you.And now I would like to introduce our panelists. First of all I want to introduce JohnZogby, come on up, the noted American political pollster and First Senior Fellow at TheCatholic University of America's Life Cycle Institute, and founder of the ZogbyInternational which has been tracking public opinions since 1984.Okay, I have to read you this card which I am among friends, so and we do have somenew staff on board of The Creative Coalition and I want to introduce Margaret Carlsonso I think that it must be another Margaret Carlson and since I didn't read my cardsbeforehand, Margaret Carlson, who is an exciting new voice in contemporary musictoday. Throughout her lifetime she has relied on her considerable talent and ingenuity tocultivate an out thriving recording career. This is just too -. Margaret Carlson's day jobalso makes her one of the public opinion leaders of the nation. Margaret Carlson.And now Eric Alterman, who I don't believe you started in music, although he writesabout it. Eric Eric Alterman, the noted American journalist, author, media critic,blogger and educator who is best known for the political weblog Altercation, come on up.Now we have Joe Scarborough, Joe is the host of the program Scarborough Country onMSNBC and also the former representative from the great state of Florida, Joe. Well, Joeis a musician, yeah. John Fund, the lead singer from The Wall Street Journal, politicaljournalist and columnist, he also writes for Political Diary, a daily column hosted atOpinionJournal.com. And our moderator and band leader for this discussion, the Emmyaward winning executive producer of NBC's West Wing Lawrence O'Donnell Junior andalso the senior Political Analyst for MSNBC and one of The McLaughlin Group.It doesn't say anything about the music in there.He is you are a drummer right? Okay, talk away.No this is mine - this is mine. I am just going to move out here a little bit because we arekind of playing in one direction if you - you know, in Washington on - on panels,especially on hearings, if there is an elected official present to testify, the elected officialalways goes first. Here we have a former elected official so he must go first. Thehonorable Joe Scarborough, Joe it seems like a sad time to be a Republican and theRepublican field is struggling, they - the base seems very dissatisfied. Everyday there is anew story about how dissatisfied the bases and you know, an actor wanders off the setof Law and Order and suddenly he is a Presidential candidate because it seems to bedesperation out there among the Republicans. How do you see the Republican fieldshaping up? How much dissatisfaction is there? You know that base; you were elected byit as well as by independents in Florida. Is it - is it as grim as some reports would indicate?Yeah, it's extremely grim and it's grim really in all segments. I have wrote a book in 2004that talked about how this Republican Congress and this Republican President could becalled many things things, but conservative not be one of them. And that is theRepublican base and I am speaking basically on economic issues. There have been somany issues that have concerned Republicans for quite some time and then you add ontop of that, Katrina. And this is interesting you know, a lot of times Evangelicals and Ithink Alexander Pelosi had a great documentary on Evangelicals on HBO that showedthey were two dimensional right wing nuts. A lot of Evangelicals were very upset by theway George Bush handled Katrina. And a lot of faith based groups down along the gulfcoast and that was also a problem, Harriet Miers was a problem, all the scandals were aproblem, I mean you take again Tom Delay, you take Jack Abramoff, Mark Foley, thenyou go on to my favorite, Duke Cunningham who actually traded votes for hookersallegedly. I am still working how I didn't get on that committee. But all of these thingshave added up. So you have Republicans who really aren't excited about the field, don'tthink they can win. Where I go and all the speeches I give to Republicans across thecountry, I keep hearing Giuliani, Giuliani Giuliani. It all comes down to leadership. ButI just don't know that the Republican base can get past the fact that not only is this guymoderate, progressive on social issues but he is now coming out talking about how hesupports federal funding of abortions, which most democratic candidates have been afraidto say they support it for sometime.So I suspect, in the end and again I am very cynical when it comes about Presidentialpolitics, I suspect in the end it's going to be John McCain, he is going to say, I was aReagan Republican in 1982, I have done a couple of things that you don't like but look atmy record and they will vote for him thus giving America quite possibly the second BobDole in past 10 or some years.All right, John Zogby, set the table for us on the polls, where the different candidatesstand Washington Post had a poll this week, you have been doing polling,give us the top three on each party.That's an easy one. Number four is the most interesting one in the Republican side. Buton the Democratic side, let's not kid ourselves; we are looking at a three way race here.Don't pay attention to the national polls. National polls at this stage are name recognition.Basically you need to look very closely at Iowa and New Hampshire, we have been alsoin Nevada and South Carolina and the intriguing thing is while you never ever ever betagainst Hillary, the fact of the matter is that she has the misfortune this year of runningagainst both Jack Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy. The voters are telling us that BarrackObama is similar to what they know about Jack Kennedy and then of course JohnEdward's message is the kind of the two Americas and the Bobby Kennedy image.Edwards leads slightly, but be leads in Iowa, the three are packed together within a few points.What are those numbers? What do they look like in Iowa?27-Edwards, 25-Hillary, 23-Obama and then no one else even closer at this point. In NewHampshire Hillary at 29 and Obama and Edwards at 23, in Nevada its 32 Hillary, 23Obama, 17, Edwards. One could argue the good news for Hillary is this is not a Mondalething going on here where she is all alone at 45 or 50 percent and running against herself.On the other hand those are not good numbers for a former first lady with a 101 percentname recognition.The Republicans side, the top three candidates are in place. You know Giuliani doingwell initially, perhaps peaking a little bit, on the decline right now in all of those states.Still leading, but not by much, leading everywhere I should say besides New Hampshireand South Carolina. McCain, leading in New Hampshire but McCain is a guy whogot almost 50 percent of the vote in a crowded race in 2000. In Nevada Nevada wedon't have much of a history of Republican caucuses, so we really don't even know whois going to vote on the Republican side, so its name recognition, McCain leading, butby very much. In South Carolina and ironically where he is leading in South Carolina iswhere he got crushed in South Carolina in 2000, in the North Western part of the state.The flavor of the month is Fred Thompson. Big undecided among conservatives, ifconservatives are undecided, either they are not going to vote or they are going to look foranother candidate. I think Fred Thompson announces his number so it becomes then afour way race.John Fund, first of all can you explain the Thompson phenomenon to us and then andwithin the context also of Giuliani, who many of us have been predicting as soon as theRepublican electorate catches up with his history and knows the Giuliani story before9/11 his numbers will start to collapse. Some of that seems to be happening and it whenthey run polls that include Thompson those numbers seem to be going to Thompson, isthat - is that what's happening?Well, I think Giuliani is still in a good position but there are very perilous waters he hasto go through. He launched his campaign too early because everything started early, thepeople expected and his campaign team is basically the old New York boys, he has veryinner tight circle. And as much as people in New York like to think they knoweverything nationally that doesn't always translate into an effective campaign. They madea lot of mistakes. Their a lot of faux pas along the campaign trail. I have alwaysthought that Giuliani's major problem in the Republican Party is not so much the socialbecause everybody knows that, we have processed it. They either are in trouble youknow they there were primary voters who are going to learn that soon enough or theyalready have. I think it's the Bernie Kerik stuff and the fact that there are other BernieKeriks out there. I think it's the fact that Giuliani partners, he has all kinds of interestingclients and he won't release the client list and there are some other things that are nothingto do with the social issue views.As for Fred Thompson, I think it's astonishing because if you look at the polls and I thinkJohn Zogby would bear me out on this, somewhere between half and two thirds of theRepublican primary electorate don't know anything about him. In fact they don't evenhave even heard about him. So the fact that he is drawing as well as he is among the partof the electorate who knows anything about him, even if its just name recognition is Ithink speaks to what Joe Scarborough and John Zogby said, there is a real void there.People are looking for Ronald Regan and Ronald Regan is not coming back from thegrave. But if they can find Ronald Regan, they are going to trying to look Ronald Reganlight and right now Fred Thompson, actor, former Senator, some experience, although nota lot looks like Ronald Regan light.Well the electorate might not know anything about Fred Thompson but Margaret Carlsondoes. Margaret, as if the Thompson candidacy blooms, how do you expect it to go?The later he gets in, the better because if you are going to if you are going to save yourparty, you are going to fill a gap you need to come in when they are truly desperate andI don't know what that would collate how late can he go and still not be ruined on theprocess and I here that's June or July, I don't know what John would think about that one,you know he is not a conservative streak.Right.- as Joe described.You sorry, can you hear Margaret back there, is she miced enough? MargaretMargaret, why don't you just use that a hand held mic, just pull it off there and hold alittle closer. Do you want to stand up just -?Oh no no, can I do upright?Whatever you want, but just there is not much chord there, but just hold it.I was saying Fred Thompson is not as conservative as those who are hoping he gets in therace want him to be and the longer he waits to declare, the better off he will be. As Johnsays he will soar once he announces, but he could peak at that moment as well becausethe process is hard and some of it you know, he is not going to come across like a truebeliever. Do you think I I missed out.Well, which is the process which Ronald Reagan always loved to say, I always wear thewhite hat. Reagan was like Jeb Bush in Florida, very conservative, but more moderatein temperament, that's what -.Yeah, but if you are going to be Mighty Mouse and save the day you have to yourtiming has to be very good. You know the front runners are really the front runners whichis what makes it so interesting, John McCain should be getting 70 percent of theRepublican base, 70 percent that are arguing, say they are still ardently for the war, but heis not getting those numbers and I think its because even inside those people who say, Iam for Bush and I am and I favor the war, they want somebody who is going to come inand do something different, even a Republican who is going to come in and do somethingdifferent. So somebody who is as wedded to the war as George Bush is and that'sMcCain, may be even more so and McCain has more at stake with the surge than Bushdoes at this point because he will be leaving. It's not working for him and I think in theend that's going to keep - that's going to tame down McCain and he is not going to make it.And Hillary the Clinton juggernaut is not over just because of the money primary buteverybody knows Hillary and everybody has an opinion about her and its hard to breakout at the numbers where she is. Its not I don't think she is going to convince manypeople that you know, she is you know, lovely human, funny, easy going opencandidate which is one of things that we require in the televisionary age. Now the goodthing about Hillary if I say one more thing, is that there comes a point at which notmaking mistake is really important. So if she gets through the part where she doesn'tshow any ankle and - she is not ruined. She is not going to make a mistake. So herweakness becomes her strength, whereas Obama being in for the first time is likely tomake a mistake because it's a hard process and it's easy to blurt something out especiallynow with the kind of coverage that candidates get.Eric Alterman, let's go to the issues. By the time we get into 2008, by the time JoeScarborough is anchoring from Iowa, what are the campaigns going to be talking aboutand who is going to be in best positions on the issues?Well, you know issues are funny things in America. But the way I think about I don'tknow who deserves credit; it's just about the best -Can you hear me, is it all right?- just about the best political observation I have heard in the past 20 years aboutAmerican politics is that its not what you say about the issues, its what the issues say about you.I think I said it.Did you really, it's very good.But I am going to take that. All the other best observations about American politics, Ican't say all that company and so, you know the issues are all about how howpeople how candidates want to be perceived as people. It's not really about the issuesthemselves. Most issues and this drives me crazy, about Joe's profession when youwatch Cable TV and they fight about issues, actually if you if you parse what the peoplewere actually saying then it wouldn't make any sense. They wouldn't be defensible there.The positions they are taking are merely hypothetical and wouldn't stand up to amoment's scrutiny. So each of the candidates is seeking to define the issues in such a waythat they don't have to defend their actual positions should they become President. On theRepublican side, that's the fight over the meaning of the word strength. Rudy Giulianidefines strength as making liberals crazy and hate you and that that's all he thinksthat will sell to the base. I don't understand the base really well enough to say if that willwork. But once if you ever get to actual issues on the Republican side I don't see howyou can I don't see how he can survive, he is to the left of most Democrats on most of the social issuesOn the Democratic side it's not about issues at all. It's all about feeling. I think I agreewith Margaret that Hillary has maxed out on the one hand she has maxed out at a placewhere 50 percent of Americans say they will not consider voting for her, which is a veryworrisome thing if you are picking a candidate, where basically there weren't that manyissues that divide them. The other big problem Hillary has is that she has no support at allamong the net roots which is where a lot of the energy comes from. There were a fewpolls of net roots in the past week or so she did about 11 percent.So the question I think, goes back to as been showcased, is the Clinton juggernaut realor not? I mean is it powerful enough to survive to control the process. BecauseMargaret's is right, she is she has got a really, really powerful organization and winningprimaries is -a significant portion of that is your organization. As getting people to vote ina primary you can win a primary with 10 percent of the electorate. So if that if thatorganization can produce what is needed to produce a victory in the first four states,then Hillary will be the nominee and we will have a close election. If its not, then ifEdwards wins, then Edwards would be President because people are tired of Republicansand there is no real objection to Edwards. If Obama wins we will have an incredibleelection because we will find out if Americans are ready to have a black President.Because Obama is an absolutely perfect candidate in every way except that he is black, Imean from the standpoint of his candidacy. And and you can't poll that issue from thefrom the standpoint of his candidacy.